Iranians are overjoyed with the news that Asghar Farhadi's film “A Separation” was awarded an Oscar for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards in Hollywood on February 26, 2012. It is the first Iranian film to win an Oscar.

Iranian bloggers participated in an outpour of celebration, and some fans also created posters for “A Separation” for different tastes.

Several bloggers such as Faryad Zier Ab and Raze Gole Sorkh have published translations of Farhadi's speech (or excerpts) in Persian. It is a speech that popular American website Slate has described as “the best of the night.”

Farhadi's speech attracted even more attention after Fars News, a semi-official news agency of Iran added their own words to the transcript.

In his speech, Farhadi said:

At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy. They are happy not just because of an important award or a film or filmmaker, but because at the time when talk of war, intimidation, and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country Iran is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics. I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, a people who respect all cultures and civilizations and despise hostility and resentment.

Iranian people respect all cultures despite the western hostility with Iranian nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Iranians are celebrating the victory in all corners of the world, including students at Texas A & M University's Iranian Students Film Club, shown cheering in this video:

The blogger Band writes [fa] that Iranian cinema has experienced “an unforgettable night” that less than one year ago would have been hard to imagine.

A Separation has been a serial award winner internationally since its release in 2011, reaping awards from the Golden Bear to Golden Globe. The title in Persian is ‘The Separation of Nader from Simin’ and the story follows the difficult separation of a middle-aged couple in Tehran.

They may present themselves in this way, but Iran is not big on free press. Fars News is referred to by international news agencies (like Reuters) as “semi-official” since it is not entirely transparent how it all fits together. However, the content tends to speak for itself.